


Session 24A- Black Blood

by GalaxyKoi



Series: Iotath's Unrest- An Angel's Fall AU [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Iotath's Unrest
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, An Angel's Fall AU, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Main Character Does Dumb Shit And Suffers, Where's Benevolent Mutiny When We Need It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 09:52:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18496516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyKoi/pseuds/GalaxyKoi
Summary: After a duel with the Blue Bandit, finding out that there's another Philious, and deciding to watch over eighty children for a week, the crew decides to settle down in their temporary rooms and rest. However, their plans are halted when their captain suddenly leaves in the early hours of the night with no reason.





	1. Familiarity in the Frost

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, I want to sincerely thank caffeinatedwriters and northern--song on Tumblr/Northern-song on DeviantArt for beta-reading this fanfic. Also, thank you North for helping to keep me motivated during this behemoth of a fanfic.  
> Additionally, I have to thank Wall's player, ArkVeil (on twitch?), for giving me a wonderful idea related to the resolution of the fanfic.  
> And as always, I want to thank the other party members and the DM with putting up with these wild AU shenanigans and letting me use their characters. I'm so sorry if I butcher your characters here, which is likely since I wrote most of this in the hours between midnight and 7 AM. (what's new)  
> ((also thank u Riahk for letting me ship ur character with mine even tho she's a complete idiot)) 
> 
> Since this is the first story of the AU, I suppose it's time to give the run-down of the AU.
> 
> Main rules of the AU:  
> \- Other than Braveheart jumping into the Abyss of Gond, no other player characters will experience a perma-death. At later levels, they can die, but only if they are shorty revived afterwards.  
> \- Willow never existed.  
> \- The AU will mostly align with canon, but may break occasionally to fulfill the AU's additional main quest: defeating the Dark Lioness, who is a key figure in the Underground in this AU.  
> \- Cynthia must suffer. At least every other addition to the AU must add one or more points to the already long incapacitated counter.  
> \- While the AU is alternatively called the Pathia AU, the AU must not solely focus on the disaster that is the Pathia ship.
> 
> Canon Divergences (Up to Session 24):
> 
> > Session 2: Very minor change: after Cynthia communes with Sune, she passes out.  
> > Session 9-12: Replaced with "An Angel's Fall": The crew regroup after finding Roth and recruiting Wall, but they stop by a tavern and find letters addressed to them, inviting them to a meeting to discuss the current issues of the Plague. Vadithas is also invited, but gets kidnapped by the cultists. The right hand of the Dark Lioness shows up to assassinate Cynthia, cursing her on top of the Living Plague infection. She lives thanks to Sune warning Paddy, and Daergron, Cynthia's adopted uncle. They return back to go through the bandit camp mini-arc.  
> > Between Session 15 and Session 16: The first instance of Wall knocking out Cynthia so she goes to sleep for once.  
> > Session 17- The Nat20 dealt by the invisible stalker instantly knocks Cynthia unconscious.  
> > Session 24- "Black Blood", which is this fanfic right here.

Cynthia couldn’t quite put words to her feelings as she slowly wrote in her temporary journal. She stared out the window to try to think on what word could perfectly describe her concerns, but none popped in her head. Sure, her vocabulary in common was not excellent to start out, but her emotions were usually more explainable.   
  
As she continued to think on it, she wrapped her arms in plaster, trying to keep the major scrapes she had clear of infection. Some of the wounds she had from the fight were internal, so she would have to simply sleep those off. Large bruises covered her backside and one on her shoulder, and she could feel them sting whenever she tried to move. She wasn’t as weak as she was earlier, for sure, but she wasn’t anywhere close to being healthy.   
  
She didn’t even know if she could sleep with how uncomfortable she felt in her state. Perhaps she could get Roth or Wall to knock her out again so she wouldn’t have to feel it. She doubted there was any alcohol up here; she’d have to walk to the bandit camp if she wanted any, which would be a two-hour walk. She decided two hours of a walk in freezing weather was not worth alcohol, at least yet.     
  
The hot springs were tempting as well, she admitted. She needed to relax right now, as she was on edge because everything was too quiet for her to be comfortable.

Additionally, why did Hoth need to leave? Why did she leave eighty children with her brother? While she was more than happy to watch over the place with Roth and the others, she had an urge to fight. She only felt like she was running away from the Plague rather than stopping it. It angered her that she was failing to do something about the Plague, mainly because she had her time to avoid solving it. Now it was everywhere, with only a slight bit of hope.   
  
With her inner conflicts rising again, she quickly looked out the window. Maybe she could fight a bandit or two, just to get her frustrations out. However, the bandit camp was too far of a walk, as she previously remembered.   
  
She quickly finished up her bandages and put back on her armor quietly, trying not to bring attention from the crew or the children just beginning to sleep. After a while, she attached her sheath and shield. She was tempted to replace her sword with one of the better quality ones, but she didn’t want to try them unless she knew what they did. Plus, they could break before she could bring them to the blacksmith.   
  
She opened the door to her room and exited the room, still trying to stay quiet as to not disturb the children. Closing the door would be too loud, so she kept it open as she tried to hide from Wall, who was guarding the main entrance. Originally, she was going to just wander around to the back side towards the springs, but then she heard something.   
  
A terrifying roar came from the outside, and she could feel the floor rumble from the power of it. Something outside compelled her to leave. Something was out there, waiting to fight her. Common sense told her to stay inside and simply relax; it had been a long day, and she was probably just tired. She ignored common sense. The roar of the beast called to her, wanting the paladin to  know of its presence. Cynthia’s heart quickened, and she decided to rush outside through the main entrance to investigate.   
  
“Captain Cynthia, what are you-“   
She couldn’t hear the rest as she exited and ran further towards the sound. She checked by her room, but she couldn’t see anything nearby. Whatever it was, it was going further away. She couldn’t let it be that close to this many people.   
  
—   
  
Confused and unable to process why the captain was suddenly in full armor and rushing outside, Wall turned and walked briskly towards Paddy’s room.   
  
“Lieutenant Paddy, have any ideas on why Cynthia left the building?”   
  
“No? What are you talking about?”   
  
“The captain rushed out the front door, but she did not say anything as to what was happening.”   
  
“I have no clue.”   
  
“In that case, I am requesting permission to pursue Cynthia Featherstone, and I additionally request for you to join me.”   
  
“We might as well.”   
  
Jade and fuchsia eyes met for a moment before they turned and saw vibrant purple eyes behind them.   
  
“What’s going on?” Roth asked.   
  
“Captain’s back to doing something reckless, I guess,” Paddy replied. “Mind keeping an eye out while we’re gone?”   
  
“Yeah, sure.” The warlock spoke.   
  
After a nod of thanks from Paddy, the artificer and the warforged immediately left, doing their best to follow footprints.   
  
—   
  
Cynthia was on a wild goose hunt that led her in a couple of circles for minutes. She was beginning to get annoyed, and she wanted to fly upwards towards the source of the sound, but her celestial magic failed to form wings. She remembered yet again that she was limited on magic.

Cynthia paused for a moment when she saw a disturbance in the snow. She noticed fresh footsteps in front of her, making her wonder if she had already been there. Something felt off about the footprints in front of her, though, but she brushed off the feeling.  
  
She decided to stay still to focus on what she could hear. Cynthia could hear something moving, and above her, she could hear the flapping of wings. She hoped it wasn’t a chimera, because she knew that she wouldn’t ever win a fight against a chimera unless she was Mordecai.   
  
The flapping grew louder and closer.   
  
She looked above and prepared to fight back, and she could make out the form of something quite similar to a chimera, but it wasn’t quite a chimera.   
  
A furious roar came from the beast as it swiftly descended. Before it landed, it unleashed claws at Cynthia, and they struck her almost perfectly on the frailer side of her armor, tracing over a series of scars. What little health she had was almost completely drained by that blow alone, and she could feel something necrotic try to steal more of her life. In her stunned state, the beast landed an easy hit, piercing through Cynthia’s armor with its teeth this time. However, the newer pain on her shoulder was overshadowed by the first hit to her side.   
  
As she looked down quickly to check on the serious injury, she immediately noticed to her horror something wrong. Her blood was black, and the skin around the wound was more grey than usual. She was in disbelief at first, but then she felt a familiar feeling sap at her health slowly.   
  
It was happening again.   
  
Panic set in quickly, knowing this was a fight she was already losing horribly. But what could she do? She understood this thing could easily chase her down. Sure, she had armor, but this thing appeared to have no issue finding the weak points.   
  
She weakly struck back, managing to swipe it across its nose.   
  
It roared again, angered, and took a few more swipes at Cynthia. This would be certainly enough to prevent Cynthia from escaping, as another claw and bite broke through her armor.   
  
The paladin had already been badly injured from the fight from earlier in the day, so it wasn’t too surprising when she felt her knees tremble feebly. The shock from the initial hit was already beginning to worsen, as she was terrified of the possibilities. However, she wondered how being cursed again was even possible. Maybe this was all some sick, twisted dream, and she was just sleeping soundly in a cosy, warm room. Unfortunately, the pain was too overwhelming to be just a nightmare.   
  
She’d have to try to run. There was no way she was getting out of this alive unless she got lucky. Cynthia bravely stood up to the manticore for one last moment, and as she did, she heard Paddy call out to her. He was also close, and some last hope rose in her chest as she backed away to be closer to where she heard Paddy’s voice.   
  
However, luck wasn’t fully with her. Not wanting Cynthia to get away, the manticore struck one more time, and it managed to pierce through armor once more.   
  
Cynthia felt dizziness and a very cold feeling catch up to her as she couldn’t withstand any more damage. She collapsed into the snow, red and black mixing with white. The captain fought for her life for a few more moments, but then she saw metallic hands touch her gently. As it did, a calming energy took over, and she immediately blacked out.   
  
—   
  
Wall and Paddy, a few moments before, noticed a manticore surrounding their captain fiercely. Hoping they weren’t too late to save their captain, Wall rushed over to spare her, and Paddy took a shot.   
  
After that, the combat tipped well out of the beast’s favor. With the two combined forces, they managed to control the situation fairly well. However, the manticore eventually took a liking towards Paddy, and it quickly began to realize how easy it was to hurt the artificer. As the manticore was growing weaker, so was the human.   
  
Finally, tired and weak as he was, Paddy managed to finally strike the beast in between its eyes. The creature let out one more scream as it fell to the ground, still.   
  
Paddy collected his breathing as he walked over to the monster to confirm its death. As he did, he noticed something that he hated, and his weakened state was overtaken by a bit of distress and a lot of panic. He glanced at the claws of the manticore, realizing that they looked more metallic than natural. Getting a better look, he saw a glint of purple in the claws’ shine, and he also confirmed that they were metallic. The paws by the claws appeared to be inflamed, as if someone had removed the claws and replaced it with those.   
  
He rushed over to Cynthia, and a very familiar scene played out before his terrified gaze. Checking to see where Cynthia had been injured, he noticed black blood.   
  
“Wall, we need to take her to the castle.”   
  
“That was what I had planned.” Wall answered, respecting Paddy as the acting captain. Paddy wanted to carry her himself, but she was too heavy for him to be carrying through snow. Luckily, Wall could easily tell how injured Paddy was, and so he walked over to carry the weak captain.

Paddy gave a glance at the manticore, and he felt something was wrong. How did they get the manticore over to here? How did they know Cynthia was here? Why now?

He had way too many questions that he couldn’t quite answer. He closed his eyes; he would have to listen to the arcane for answers. He opened his jade eyes and casted _Detect Magic,_ remembering that their last run-in with the Dark Lioness’s goons involved magic items. He expected the manticore to be flowing with magic, mainly because he thought the manticore was simply a polymorph, but he didn’t see anything that would infer that.

He looked at the claws again. They were definitely still radiating some sort of necrotic, cursed energy. He wanted to take them to examine them himself, but the claws were forcefully lodged into the manticore. Curiously, he also glanced at Wall and Cynthia. Wall still had his eldritch energy crawling around him, but he also noticed a bit of divine energy circling him too.

_Wall didn’t have that before. That might explain the newer spells he has, but what god would possibly be watching over him?_ The artificer pondered. He remembered Wall using a spell of some sort to stop the bandit from dying earlier that day, and then just used it again moments ago to stabilize Cynthia. Whatever this spell is, it seemed like Cynthia should have, but apparently she either has never used or just doesn’t know of it. Of course, it’s not like Cynthia’s really needed it, since she’s been the only one to ever be in this state multiple times.

Feeling slightly dizzy as they began to walk back, Paddy dismantled his guns to apply pressure on some of the wounds. He realized, much to his relief, that all of the wounds he could pick out didn’t have that greyish tone that Cynthia’s side had, nor did he see any black blood. He healed himself a bit, trying to get rid of the feeling, but he could still feel it, if not worse. However, he was definitely healing himself more than he possibly could with Cynthia at the moment.

He glanced back at his captain, noticing black aura trying to fight off a faint divine aura. He looked back at himself, just to make sure he didn’t see anything similar. All he noticed from himself was wisps of jade arcane energy, but nothing like what he noticed on Cynthia. Additionally, from what Cynthia had expressed from what she felt the last time this happened, whatever he felt did not match that. It wasn’t much of a feeling as if he was withering as it was that he was just incredibly tired.

While Paddy was always brimming with intelligence, he ignored a very important detail: the environment. The high ranks of _The Grey Rat_ were walking-- minus Cynthia, who was definitely still unconscious-- in deep snow. The night had made the temperature drop heavily, and a light breeze made the frigid air worse. Wall didn’t have to worry about it too much, considering he was a warforged and wearing heavy armor, and Cynthia wore full plate armor, as well as multiple layers. The artificer, relying on mobility, had only a layer of leather armor under short-sleeved clothes.

Paddy didn’t remember walking this far out from the castle, and he was beginning to worry that they had gotten lost in the snow. They were following their tracks, but they could have gone in a loop trying to hunt down a mad paladin. He hoped Wall wasn’t following him, or else they were doomed. The three were on two different clocks to get back, as the night was making the air feel worse, and the curse would eventually try to take another strike on Cynthia.

He felt like he could simply fall asleep in the snow, but he fought the feeling for a bit longer as he tried to explain a lot at once. The curse, their previous encounter with it, the Dark Lioness and Nalakiano, all of it. However, he made sure to mention what Daergron had said to cure it.

“I do recall hearing about Augvek Nalakiano being found and properly dealt with as I was being discharged, but I did not know you had been related to the situation. The Dark Lioness is a notorious figure in the Underground, and it would not be too far from her to be getting revenge for her right hand’s death. She has been wanted for ten years now, but she had been mostly quiet until recently.” Wall explained. “How did you even kill him? He was known for being able to use higher-leveled magic.”

“I didn’t, Roth killed him with his signature spell. Must have hit him well, because it sent him flying.”

“I see. Now, back to what you said earlier, you said that this curse can slowly kill? How are you still okay, and how is she not dead?”

“Daergron mentioned something about the curse only infecting if they got hit seriously, or something like that. It’s pretty visual as well, with the wound becoming more grey, and the blood becoming black. I don’t see any of that on me, and she’s fine because it’s relatively slow combined with her celestial-ness.”

They trailed around some more, getting lost for a while. They realized that they had been following the wrong set of footprints, and they eventually had to stop for a moment to quickly stabilize Cynthia when they couldn’t feel any pulse.

After making sure Cynthia was alive, Wall glanced at Paddy, who was shivering, and his hands were almost as white as the snow below them.

“Captain McLoughlin, I believe it would be optimal for you to make a fire to prevent any risk of hypothermia you may be experiencing.” Wall recommended.

“We shouldn’t be too far from the castle now. It’s too dangerous to stay out here for longer than we need.”

“Very well.”

One clock had been reset, but the other kept ticking. They had been outside for a while, and certainly longer than it took for them to get there.

However, after a bit longer, they began to make out the castle in the distance. Feeling hopeful, Paddy walked in that direction, but he was beginning to stumble a bit, his legs and arms numb. Paddy was trembling from the cold, but he was so close to being safe and warm. Another couple of minutes was all they needed to return to the castle.

However, he sensed nothing outside of sight, and he suddenly felt incredibly tired. It was hard to tell if the artificer simply had little time to react to catch his fall, or if he simply let it happen. He took a final step in the snow, and then he slept deeply. He dreamed none.

\--

Wall’s violet eyes glinted with concern as he kneeled over Paddy, who was also now unconscious. However, Wall could tell Paddy would be fine after he, too, was spared from death.

He found himself in a strange situation, as by technicality, he was now currently the captain since both higher ranks were incapacitated. It had never gotten down to this situation before, but it wasn’t too surprising. Cynthia’s strong will to protect everyone except herself made her fight a manticore by herself without any warning. Paddy’s confidence, and perhaps something else, made him think he could continue onwards, even though it was clear hypothermia was at a relatively critical state.

What was worse was that they were now missing both of their healers. Roth certainly didn’t have any healing capabilities, minus common medicinal knowledge. Wall had some knowledge himself in his data banks, but he was trained as a soldier, not a doctor. However, his survival knowledge was immense enough to compensate.

He repositioned Cynthia to be over one of his shoulders, making sure to keep a hand by the paladin’s neck. After that, he picked up Paddy and placed him over the other shoulder. Encumbered by their combined weight, he progressed slower, but the castle was right in his sight.

He had to spare Cynthia again right as he was about to cross the last line of trees. The clock resets. The other grows larger.

Crossing the final line of trees, the warforged arrived before the castle, but details were still hard to make out in the cold darkness. The wind had become more violent, making snow below dance below his metal feet. He would look behind to see his heavy footprints disappear behind him. He could also tell that Cynthia was beginning to slip quicker every time after he stabilized her, but he also knew that it was all he could do.

Roth Philious was standing outside the front doors, who was wearing a thick coat barely over his robes and under a shield of magic. The warlock was tense, and his violet eyes seemed to have a slight glow that matched his orb. As Wall approached closer, however, Roth’s expression slowly changed to relief, and then instantaneously to fear as he noticed both the captain and the first mate unconscious and seriously injured.

“Okay, Cynthia being unconscious is normal. What happened to- forget it. I’ll ask you when you get inside.”

Roth’s purple eyes glowed in the darkness, and he showed little emotion as he summoned a mage hand to open the door. After letting Wall inside, he entered the castle and shut the doors behind him. Keeping the mage hand active, he rushed towards Paddy’s room and opened another door for Wall, the familiarity settling in a bit too close for his comfort.


	2. Exhausted and Homesick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the conclusion of Session 24A, Wall returns Paddy and Cynthia to the castle. While time is not an incredible threat as long as Wall stays close to the captain, it limits their options. How will the crew handle the situation? How will they cure the curse if Wall does not have the ability to cast Light?

Wall and Roth tried to be quiet, remembering about the sleeping children, and they began to unpack the current situation. Additionally, Roth noticed Wall having to quickly re-stabilize Cynthia, which began to make him grow worried. 

_ What did Cynthia get herself into this time? _  Roth wondered. It was almost like she was trying to get herself killed at this point, but Sune wouldn’t let her die. He was annoyed that Cynthia, who was older than all of them, was constantly having to be watched over like some dumb child who kept trying to stick its hand in a highly-potent toxin. 

The warlock felt a chill on his shoulder. He looked on his shoulder to see the faint image of Kermit.

“ B̷̹̉l̵̹͑̍o̷̮̤̕o̸͓̤͗͘d̷͚͊ ̸̱̀b̴͕̫̋͛l̶̟̯͋a̴̩̔̀c̷̘͝k̴̲͚̾ ̶̖͘ä̷̢̗́̋s̷̫̈́ ̵̦͎̆n̸͖̝̎͌i̴̛̪̽͜g̵͍̮̈́̉ḩ̸̓̎t̸͔̏.̷̧͒ ̸͙̚͠Ạ̵͐̈́n̷̢̳̆o̸̮̺͆̽t̸̙̄͆h̶̘̙̉e̵̛͚̔ȑ̶̬ ̵̺̑͛c̸̯̔̔l̶̟͚͂ô̶͙c̶̯̙͊k̸̥̇͒ ̸̞̹̎̽r̵̦̊ȇ̶̡s̷̢͛̋e̴͚͒̐t̴̡͇͛s̷̥̚.̷̻̮͋ ̴̗̑A̵̰̒͂n̴̳͆̎o̷̰̜̚ṱ̸̿h̸̫͚̓ë̸̖͘r̸͕ ̸͕̗͂͝c̶̻̏̂o̵̠͖̔͘n̴̼͍͘ẗ̴̞́í̶̜̤́n̴̰̳̓u̸̹͙̿͊ë̵͎̣́s̸͖͓͛.̸̯́ .” Kermit whispered in a static-filled, cryptic voice. 

Roth blinked in confusion, but when he opened his eyes, his fiend was gone. 

He turned back to Wall removing Cynthia’s armor and jacket, leaving her in a black cami and leggings. Instantly after, Wall exposed one of her sides, and that’s when he understood what his fiend meant. 

The warlock walked over to Paddy’s side of the bed first, making sure that Paddy wasn’t cursed as well, but after a good look, he felt only temporary relief when he did not notice any unusual blood colors or greyed skin. 

“Do not worry, Roth. Paddy already explained about the works of the curse. I can assure you that he did not get cursed.” Wall told Roth.

“ _ This is very bad, Wall. I’m going to worry about it, _ ” Roth answered, “and you can’t stop me. Anyway, you keep taking care of them, I’m going to go grab a medicine kit and some warm blankets.”

\--

An hour passed. Two hours. Three hours.

The situation seemed bleak, and Wall was considering if it would be logical to simply let the captain finally die after suffering for this long. However, there was one point where, by some miracle, Cynthia woke up. She was incredibly weak, and her will was the only thing keeping her conscious for a small amount of time. 

The paladin felt everything slip from under her as her vision struggled to focus. The worst part was that her only moment of clarity told her what was happening to her. 

“Captain Cynthia, it is alarming to see you awake right now.” Wall began to say, but he could see the terror in her eyes. He did not know if he could comfort her, especially with the situation at hand. Additionally, she noticed Paddy unconscious close to her, and her hands grasped onto the sheets. However, it was more effort than she could give; she could barely feel them in her hands. 

She opened her mouth, about to aggressively say something, but she only got out one word before breaking down into a coughing fit. Wall got closer, prepared to stabilize her if necessary, but she seemed to resolve it herself. However, her composure was long gone.

“Cynthia, I need you to lie down and stay still. By struggling like this, you are only making it worse.” 

“Don’t tell me what  _ the fuck to do, Wall. _ ” Cynthia snapped. “I already  _ have _ made it worse by making him suffer as well.”

Wall stayed silent as the aasimar looked towards the human, and Cynthia softly spoke, “I’m sorry for this, Paddy. It’s my fault you got into this situation. I… I just wanted to protect you, darling. I’m tired of you having to protect me.”

“Could you clarify?” Wall asked.

Cynthia blinked, and then looked back at Wall before answering, “I can’t remember everything right now, but from what I can remember, I know I had heard something violent outside. My instincts kicked in, and I just wanted to stop it from hurting everyone here. So I rushed out and chased it down… Everything else is becoming hard to recollect. I guess you and Paddy must have saved me from whatever it was that cursed me again. And here I am now, knowing that I’ve failed you and the others again.  _ Sune,  _ who thought it was good for me to be the only hope from the Living Plague destroying Iotath?”

After rambling a bit more, she found herself curling into a ball, her head on a pillow as her voice began to rasp to the point where she couldn’t speak in a normal volume. 

“I just want to be home again, with a gentle fire lighting the room and a gentle conversation about the tales of the past. The Living Plague took that from me. It took everything from me. I don’t want it to take you all, too…”

Cynthia went quiet, unable to speak from a harsh feeling in the back of her throat and immeasurable pain. She was too irritated at herself to even try to recover, but it wasn’t like she could even if she wanted. Additionally, she knew her time left conscious was little, and she was growing emotionally tired of everything. 

_ I’ve failed all of them, Sune. I keep failing them as their captain. _

Her will was breaking quickly, and as soon as she felt the curse try to take her again, she barely resisted, letting herself fall back to an unconscious state

\--

Not much after Cynthia passed out again, the artificer himself finally woke up. 

He felt sickly warm, and at first, the change of temperature bothered him so much that he tried to grab the covers and throw them off. He didn’t really think about what had brought him here until he heard a voice mention his name and being awake.   
  
“Yeah, give me five more minutes...” Paddy mumbled, and he tried to shift around into a more comfortable position until he felt someone else next to him. At that moment, he opened his eyes to see Cynthia beside him, her whole body almost wrapped in bandages like some sort of mummy. He actively tried to recall what got him here, and why Wall was also in the same room. 

Additionally, Wall was incredibly close to the captain, keeping one finger by her neck to presumably keep track of her pulse. 

Then, he remembered most of what had happened as he glanced over her wounds. 

_ I couldn’t have been out for too long if they’re still trying to solve this, right?  _ Paddy thought. However, after a short conversation with Wall, he realized how wrong he was.

“Wall, where’s Roth?” Paddy had asked first.

“He returned to resting after having to take care of the captain and you about two hours ago.”

“Wait, how long have Cynthia and I been out for?”

“Four hours. Cynthia briefly regained consciousness about fifteen minutes ago, but she returned to her current unconscious state a few minutes ago. It is certain that she possessed a high level of distress.”

“Did you not find a way to cure it yet?”

“No. I have been responsible for keeping track of Cynthia since we returned to the castle, and Roth had confirmed that there are no persons in the castle that possessed the ability to produce divine light.”

Paddy paused for a moment, as if temporarily stumped, but then asked, “You have divine magic; there’s got to be a way to at least find a scroll of  _ Light _ or something in this castle, right? Or…”

Wall was about to respond to Paddy’s initial question, but Paddy gestured to Wall as if trying to silence him.

“The cure is only the light of a holy hand. Who says we can’t try to test the rules a bit here? If things go wrong, I can always try to heal her again, or at least a bit.”

“You propose an interesting idea, Paddy McLoughlin. How do you plan on testing the conditions of the cure?”

“It never says we have to use magic to cast  _ Light _ to cure it, or at least that we know of. What if you just have a light source in your hand, like a torch?”

“It is worth a test, given our current situation. We can always go to the first option as well if this one fails.”

Paddy gave a nod, and then paused for a moment. He knew that if he healed Cynthia, she would wake up again, and there was a small chance she would be awake again for hours. He decided he would rather have that than for her to be dead. While he was tempted to heal himself as well, given how serious his own wounds were, he knew that he would be fine after some rest. 

“Wall, I’m about to heal her. Do you mind if I have a moment alone to speak to her about this idea?” Paddy softly asked the warforged, who still was close to her.

“I do not mind at all, lieutenant.” Wall answered. He backed away and briskly walked out of the room. 

Immediately after, not wanting to risk Cynthia dying again, Paddy cast  _ Cure Wounds _ on the captain. He noticed that the spell worked for a bit, but then the curse rejected his healing magic after a few moments. It brought up an interesting question to Paddy: was the curse intelligent? Was it reacting to the healing magic on its own, or was it somehow modified through trial and error to cause this? 

He noticed an unusual hesitation from Cynthia. It had been common for her to jolt awake from the spell’s magic or out of unconsciousness in general, but he noticed that she was slow to wake. 

Her celestial eyes met his after half of a minute, and then she looked around the room again. After a quick scan of the room, Cynthia wrapped her arms around him and rested her head gently on his chest. Paddy flinched for a second since it hurt a bit to be touched anywhere, but he relaxed eventually. 

“I’m sorry for what happened, Paddy.” Cynthia muffled. “I’ve failed you again as captain. I should have been stronger than that, and shouldn’t have had to risk your life like that for me again…”

Paddy was puzzled by the way Cynthia was talking about what had happened. Sure, he agreed that rushing in alone into a dangerous situation was an idiotic decision made by the captain, but that was not in her strange apology. 

“Cynthia, I’m more concerned why you decided to go out there knowing you would be alone.”

“What if there wasn’t enough time to warn you, darling? Whatever that thing was could have killed you and easily the others here if we gave it more time. You were already injured enough from the fight from earlier, too.”

“I had healed a bit of my wounds before the fight.” 

Paddy realized that it was hard to break through Cynthia’s reckless stubbornness. Additionally, he reminded himself why he woke up Cynthia in the first place. He paused, giving a long sigh as he changed the the topic, “You know you’re cursed again, right?”

“Yes, darling. Have they not found anything for it yet?”

“Not yet, but we wanted to try something. You know that Wall has divine magic, right?”

“No? What do you mean he has divine magic?”

“Well, he does, so he’s currently your best shot at being cured right now. Anyway, we just wanted to know if it would be okay if we tried something out before having to search the castle for a scroll.”

“I trust you enough, Paddy. You are the common sense of the two of us.” 

“Great, because we’re about to put a torch to your side and hope it works as a valid cure.” 

He could feel a bit more pressure around him as Cynthia’s hands dug into his back. 

“You can still heal me if it goes wrong, right?” Cynthia nervously asked with a hint of doubt.

“I wouldn’t be trying this if I couldn’t.”

Cynthia pulled away from Paddy, and Paddy felt a bit of terror as Cynthia gave him a smirk and a strangely confident response, “Well, I guess we’ll test this out, Paddy. Let me be your test subject, then.”

Paddy did his absolute best not to realize that Cynthia had not said that in any flirtatious subtext, but it assured him that she was definitely fine right now if she was talking like that, or at least so incredibly numbed by the pain that she really didn’t care if they burned her.

“Okay, Wall, the captain’s fine with us trying the idea.” Paddy announced.

Wall entered the room again after a few moments. Although his face carried no expression, Paddy could feel almost as if Wall was unusually ready to burn their captain in the name of science. 

The warforged grabbed a torch from his bag of supplies. He seemed to pause and whisper something before striking it against the stone floor. The torch’s flame burst into life, and he began to approach Cynthia cautiously with the torch. 

“Captain Cynthia, I should warn you to stay still while I go through the procedure of striking your side with this torch. Given your state, there is a thin chance that this could render you unconscious again-“

“Do it, Wall. I have nothing else to lose here.”

Paddy let Cynthia hold one of his hands with her own, but only because he was also trying to limit her from recoiling from the small amount of damage she was about to take. 

Wall accurately struck the major wound, and as the torch flame grew closer to the wound, the greyish hue around it quickly receded. Sure, he could have simply put the torch close to Cynthia and see what happened, but he couldn’t explain why he wanted to make Cynthia suffer again. Perhaps for bringing half of the crew into a dangerous situation by having to rescue her? Was this a similar response as he had when Roth was trying to subdue her on the ship?

Cynthia barely muffled a yelping noise as she felt the flame directly touch the cursed injury, and after everything was done, she did feel incredibly weak again. After Wall got the torch away from her, she pried off her hand reluctantly from the artificer’s hand as she could no longer sit up with her current strength. 

Paddy shook Cynthia to make sure the captain had not gone unconscious from the pain, but her eyes shifted towards him. After that confirmation that she wasn’t dying again, he looked at the claw marks on her side.

Her blood was red again, and that greyish tone had faded. 

As one more confirmation, he recast  _ Detect Magic _ .

No black aura.

“Well, Cynthia, as long as you’re not feeling any of the curse still, it appears to be cured,” Paddy spoke, “I actually wasn’t expecting that to work, but I guess the gods reward you for creativity.”

“That is excellent, Lieutenant Paddy. However, I would recommend that someone keeps an eye on her to ensure that there is no further danger.”

“You go keep watch of the front again, Wall. I can keep an eye on her for a while.”

“Are you sure-“

“He’s sure.” Cynthia interjected, letting out a tiny cough as she had to remind herself again that she was still heavily injured.

Wall looked suspiciously at both of them, but knew he could not protest against both of the people who were higher ranked. He extinguished the flame from the torch and walked back outside.

Cynthia and Paddy looked at each other, recognizing the other’s exhaustion and weakness. They both made sure to tend to their wounds first, not wanting to accidentally go unconscious again from blood loss or deal with infections in the morning. It was an awkward team effort, but they made it work. 

After that, however, Cynthia watched Paddy lie down next to her, and she pulled herself into a curled ball around him, with her head lying on his chest. 

“Cynthia, I love you, but you really need to learn to love yourself.” Paddy gently said, “You keep doing this to yourself as if we can’t defend for ourselves.”

“But it’s my duty as your captain and as a paladin of Sune to protect you and the rest of the crew.” She replied, trying to argue but too tired to bring out emotion in her voice. “I swore to my goddess that I would protect you, and I certainly don’t want to watch you die from another person’s cause. There’s been too many nights where I’ve been restless thinking about how I could fail you. And the Plague just keeps getting worse the more time we spend away from it…”

Paddy grew quiet as he thought about what Cynthia had said to him.

_ Gods, is it really that rough of a situation for her? _

It made sense, given what Cynthia had brought up of her past. She never had a childhood that let her be self-centred, and every time she had grown attached to some figure, they had soon died or abandoned her. And then she vowed to avenge one of their deaths, with the cause of death being a not-explainable Plague that was bringing ruin to Iotath. 

And even after fourteen years, it still hurt.

Paddy placed one hand on her head to brush some of Cynthia’s hair to the side, and then the artificer spoke once more, “Trust me when I say this, Cynthia. Wall, Roth, Poth, and I are all okay now. At this point, we’ve gone through a lot together, and we’ve made it alive at the end. You don’t have to spend so much of your strength trying to save us from everything that they throw at us. We’re with you through this, Cynthia, but we need you to protect yourself as well. It worries me when you do so many reckless things for us.”

The room went silent again for a solid minute, but it was broken. 

“Thank you, darling.” The captain responded quietly.

Paddy watched as Cynthia got more comfortable around him and close her eyes again. Just to be safe, he nudged Cynthia, but he heard her mumble something back to him before going quiet again. 

Drowsiness caught up with him as well after a few minutes of silence. Paddy let it bring him to sleep, ending another very eventful day. 


End file.
